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Daeva Beat Sheet
Beat Sheets are ways to gain extra beats (experience) to spend on your character, by delving further into the character's nuances and by giving storytelling staff more handles to interact with your character. Whenever a question asks you about someone from your past, you have the option of describing the relevant details and the interaction, but leaving them unnamed. This invites staff to match up the shadows in your past with the shadows in other PCs', giving another dimension of interaction. This Beat Sheet is for Daeva only. Non-Daeva characters may get up to five Beats from this sheet if there are questions that reasonably apply to them and have not been answered elsewhere. Daeva Beat Sheet (Twenty Beats) 'The Kiss '(One Beat) The Kiss is an amazing, euphoric sensation - for both parties. For the vampire, hunger is a constant companion, a powerful, painful thirst that throbs and twists in the gut. Every gulp of the vessel's hot blood further suppresses that painful craving and adds to the already considerable pleasure that the vampire experiences from taste alone. Feeding is always orgasmically good, and while you're drinking you feel alive. In the afterglow your body hums, feeling full where before you were hollow. The Kiss is love and lust for both parties. It's the sex you know you shouldn't have, but will come back for. That said, the details are different for each vampire. A Daeva's Kiss tends to be more blatantly sexual than other clans. It might be like being fucked everywhere all at once, like sex in the veins, like your skin itself is orgasming. How does your Kiss feel for your vessel? How does it feel for you? 'The Curse '(Three Beats) The Wanton Curse makes Daeva grow attached to their vessels. How does your Curse influence your behavior? What strategies, if any, do you use to mitigate its effects? (Two Beats) Daeva tend to pursue things that make them feel alive. What makes you feel alive? (One Beat) 'The Bloodsong '(One Beat) Vitae is always molten ecstacy. It burns the lips and scorches the throat, it's sweet and savory at the same time, it's the best thing you've ever tasted. That said, every vampire's blood tastes slightly different (much like every vintage of wine tastes slightly different) - and they're all the best thing you've ever tasted. Perhaps more importantly, the Blood is alive. A vampire can always feel it, whether it sluggishly collects in a soggy morass deep in the dead gut or whether it clings to the bones and burns like napalm. Again, there are commonalities between clans, though there's also a significantly greater scope for variation. For Daeva the Blood channels the salacious whispers of the vampire's worst demons, an oily unguent that speaks of want and need more than anything else. It might be an unquenchable, ever-restless itch of desire. It might burn with craving like napalm, like looking into the sun. It might feel as sharp as a knife with need, as if the Daeva's very veins were razorblades. It might be a dull, heavy ache of longing that feels like it has its own gravity. It might thrum with power and promise, vibrating at a pitch that's almost too high to bear. What is your Bloodsong? 'The Beast '(Five Beats) Your Beast has no separate existence from you, of course, but for most vampires it feels like an Other that lives inside the same skin, with its own desires. For vampires who maintain a firm grip on their sanity the Beast might only appear in the dreams of the daysleep or in their mind's eye, a purely psychological projection. Vampires who are a little less bound by objective reality might glimpse their Beast in the corner of their vision, or hear it whispering in their ear. How do you envision your Beast? Is it tied in some way to your deepest hungers? A bloated worm's neck and fat mouth for its bottomless hunger, a Priapic Big Bad Wolf for its depraved lusts? Does it have a voice, wicked in its mammalian seduction or crass in its beserk invective? Could the Beast be something from your mortal life, such as an abusive father dragging his whipping belt or your once-best friend, murdered in frenzy? The Beast within might just be an embodiment of you at your worst: bloody, brutal, wide-eyed, savage in the deepest meaning of the word. Describe your Beast. (Two Beats) Every vampire can evoke three aspects of the Beast by lashing out with her predatory aura: *The Monstrous Beast is the Beast as Destroyer, whose every instinct is to rip asunder and who evokes primative survival instincts in its victims. *The Seductive Beast is the Beast as Tempter, who desires hot abandon, and a temporary escape from reality, inspiring the primal need for instant gratification in its victims. *The Competitive Beast is the Beast as Alpha, who needs to command and control, and evokes submission or proof of dominance from its victims. Describe how each aspect of your Beast manifests in your predatory aura. How does it feel to the victim? (One Beat each) 'Controlling it '(One Beat) At those moments when the Beast rises within you and frenzy threatens, how does it feel to try and stave off those urges? Perhaps you imagine the Beast literally caged, snarling and snapping inside bars of iron or steel. Perhaps you do the mental equivalent of covering your ears with both hands and declaring 'lalala, I'm not listening' to its whispers. Perhaps you feel it only as a rising surge of emotion and combat it with the old tricks of mortality - a deep calming breath, conscious control of your volume and tone, the relaxation of tensed muscles. 'Frenzy '(Three Beats) No two vampires behave exactly the same way when they enter frenzy. The basic personality of the vampire is distilled into its most predatory during the loss of control, eliminating the obstruction of higher mental function, but retaining certain traits. Outgoing, physical Kindred may howl with rage and tear mindlessly at their prey, while more withdrawn intellectual types become chillingly silent, moving with horrifying precision. A vampire's bloodsong strongly influences how they behave at such times, and correspondingly there are clan-related patterns. For many Daeva, Beast seems like a beautiful, deadly angel that takes control, leaving the Man to watch as mute dissociated witness. They look good doing it, and onlookers will almost ache for the vampire to murder them. The things that push a vampire into frenzy tend to fall into basic categories: fear, hunger, anger. The Beast's behavior is obviously different depending on the frenzy's trigger and the Beast's desires. Describe a time that you have frenzied. What was it the Beast wanted, and how did it behave? You may give up to three examples, with each addressing a different motivation. (One Beat each) 'Powers '(Three to Six Beats) You can't learn a Discipline without it changing you. Oh, not a deeply as a Coil changes you, granted - more insidiously than that, and on a psychological rather than a physical level. Celerity might make you feel literally untouchable, allowing you to throw yourself into more dangerous situations than you would have dared before. It might make everyone else seem hopelessly clumsy and slow, bringing a slow burn of impatience as you wait... for everyone... else... to catch... up... with you. If you have Celerity, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) Majesty can become a habit. It costs nothing to activate Awe, and many Daeva come to the point that they don't even realise they're doing it. Some Daeva stop making an effort on their appearance - why bother, when you can show up filthy and covered in unspeakable fluids, and still be gorgeous? Some Daeva take it as a challenge - "Will you still want me if I do this?" Some Daeva secretly develop inferiority complexes, aware that the way people react to them is because they're forcing it, that it's the power people love and not really them. And others grow disdainful of the bumbling, tongue-tied behavior their power inspires in ordinary people, coming to hate the very people they've forced to worship them. If you have Majesty, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) Vigor adds directly to your strength, a persistent effect requiring no Vitae to activate. The world is fragile around you, made of tissue, and it's easy to hurt people without meaning to. You either learn how to control your strength, or you become a monster. If you have Vigor, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) Category:Beat Sheets Category:Daeva